But Strachan has now admitted that he picked the former St Mirren starlet after watching him help the Under-21s physio with equipment.

He said: “Here’s why I picked John McGinn for the first squad he was in.

“I went to see the Under-21s train for a week at Mar Hall and the rest of the boys were just concentrating on their own thing when one of the physios was struggling to carry mannequins and all sorts of different things.

“But I saw McGinn walk over to the physio, speak to him, take the four mannequins off him and walk the 400 yards with them on to the pitch. I picked him on the fact that he was willing to help someone when nobody else was — it says a lot about the character of the man.”